After reading Yuganta: The end of an epoch, there were two things that kept bothering me. The first one was Karve’s view of Bhishma, specifically around the incident during the Rajasuya Yagna by Yudhishthir. Bhishma asked for Krishna to be the first one to be respected and in both Shishupala and Karve’s view that choice reflected Bhishma’s own estimation of his relevance. Also, a statement in which Karve said that the “later poets or contributors to the Mahabharata have made Bhishma speak a lot of banalities in the Shanti Parva to establish him as the leader of the clan.” The second one was her view that in the works that came after Mahabharata, the spirit of enquiry was lost. This post is about a book which I read to gain a larger perspective.

The struggles of Bhishma were real and I agree with Karve that he did not come good at quite a few places. However, after reading her viewpoint on Bhishma, I recalled a section from the Anushashan Parva of Mahabharata, which Karve thinks is a later interpolation. This section comes after the end of the war. As Arjuna had asked for guidance before the war from Krishna, Yudhishthira also asked for guidance after the war had ended. Rather than advising Yudhishthira, Krishna took him to Bhishma, who was lying on the bed of arrows in the battlefield and instructed him to learn from Bhishma. Yudhishthira asked six questions to Bhishma, who then answered them and then uttered the thousand names of the Lord that form the Visnu Sahasranama Stotram.

Sahasranama – literally a thousand names. In the Hindu tradition, we have Sahasranama for quite a lot of deities. But when the Sahasranama is called by just this word – Sahasranama, it means the Visnu Sahasranama. Everyone else has to have their name attached to the Sahasranama in order for the devotee or scholar to identify the stotram. Not so for Visnu. Why is that so? Because in the Sanatan tradition, this is the only Sahasranama which had God himself as witness when it was recited for the first time. When Krishna led Yudhishthira to Bhishma and asked him to be instructed from him, Bhishma spoke a thousand names of Visnu. Krishna was there as a witness.

Yudhisthira asked six questions –

1. In this world who is extolled as the one God?
2. What is the sole ultimate goal?
3. By glorifying whom, one can attain all that is auspicious in this world?
4. By worshipping whom, one can attain all that is auspicious in this world?
5. Of all the dharmas, which is the greatest dharma in your opinion?
6. By doing what Japa (repeated muttering), one can be released from the cycle of birth and death?

Bhishma answered these questions for Yudhisthira thus.

The Lord of the world, the Supreme Person is the one God and by worshipping Him alone with constant devotion, the aspirant is freed from this world. Having neither beginning nor end, Vishnu, the great Lord is the Witness of the world. He is the Truth Absolute and the Source of evolution of all things. From Him all creatures proceed in the beginning of an age, And in Him they are absorbed again at the end of the age.

And then he proceeded to recite the one thousand names of Visnu.

There is a story in the tradition, when the great Sankaracharya wanted to get started on doing commentaries on India’s great philosophical treatises – he asked one of his disciples to pull out any philosophical work at random. His disciple pulled out Visnu Shasranama. This book is in the tradition of devotee – Bhakti Marga and is not considered a philosophical treatise. So, he asked his disciple to put the book back in and asked another one to pull a book at random. It was the same book again. After it happened for the third time Sankaracharya took this to be God’s will and wrote the commentary on this book.

My commenting on Sankaracharya’s commentary is akin to showing a candle to the sun. This is a profound book that makes an earnest reader think. Reading the meaning of each name made me marvel at the thought behind this composition. I will take the example of the first two names.

Viswa – He is the Universe. Or, he is the creator of the Universe.

Visnu – He pervades the Universe. Or, After creating the universe, He entered it (vis – to enter or to permeate).

Looking at these two names from the perspective of Unity of all things, on which I have contemplated upon in the post – A grain of sand, the two names show that all the manifested universe has the same origin. The believers in the Big Bang think that at the start of the universe there was a singularity from which the entire universe proceeded. At the end of the universe, the universe will get back to that same singularity. Thus whatever was at the beginning, the observable universe now is an expansion of that only. The question to ask is whether that expansion of the singularity had a cause called God or the singularity had a consciousness which is called God consciousness.

Even if there was no cause or consciousness, we can arrive at the conclusion that whatever was there at the beginning is the same as whatever is present now and will continue to be the same in the future. The singularity now exists in the form of the universe and if we take this thought to its logical end, we are all the same singularity who have assumed different forms during the expansion, but when it all ends we will be back to that one Being. The Advaita Philosophy of Shankaracharya proclaims – “There is no other.”

Reading the Sahasranama is rewarding in many ways. If you are in the tradition of Bhakti – the path of devotion, you will learn the meaning of the thousand names of Visnu. In the Sahasranama, the thousand names are not exactly thousand. Some of the names are repeated and hold different meanings based on the context. So with the different meanings, these are a thousand names and knowledge of the meaning changes your experience of recitation. For example, I did not know the meaning of “Rama”, even though this name is part of our day to day conversations. 

“Brahman is indicated by the word Rama to show that yogis revel in permanent bliss (similar to Hindi word ‘ramna’, as in ‘mann ramna kisi kaam mein’) of atma that is pure consciousness.”

As a scholar, this book is very rewarding to read. Sankaracharya has used logic to arrive at deep meanings associated with some of the names. For example, the meaning of the name “Aprameyah” which literally means “the unknowable”.

“Because He cannot be reached by the senses as He is devoid of sense-object such as sound, etc.; nor through inference can He be known because He is devoid of characteristic marks relating to inference; nor through analogy; for He is without parts and hence no comparison can be made; nor through inference from circumstances, because it is impossible to attain anything without Him; nor through negative proof, because He is the very existence himself as well as the witness of negation; nor through the testimony of Shastras, because He is devoid of any peculiarities that may be deduced from them.”

In the Indian philosophy, there are six valid means of knowledge – Pratyakṣa (perception), Anumāṇa (inference), Upamāṇa (comparison and analogy), Arthāpatti (postulation, derivation from circumstances), Anupalabdhi (non-perception, negative/cognitive proof) and Śabda (word, testimony of past or present reliable experts). In this explanation, it is shown that just saying He is unknowable is not enough – we have to demonstrate that each of the means of knowledge are useless as far as knowing Him is concerned.

As a philosopher, you can only marvel at the thoughts and method that Sankaracharya uses to arrive at the Advaita Vedantic philosophy using this pure Bhakti Marga stotram. He has utilized the names of the Lord and has arrived at the oneness of universe. It is fascinating to experience.

If you are inclined towards any of these attitudes, this book is a must read. May we keep inspiring each other.